Genius Wireless Grandias 12V review

Everybody's hands are different

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Our Verdict

Not one for anybody who is serious about gaming or even those who are not

For

Wireless

Against

Too large

Poorly designed

Poor D-pad

Everybody's hands are different and yet so many gamepads still manage to feel comfortable to hold for many different people. The Grandias, though, is certainly not one of them.

The instant you pick it up you can feel the lack of quality; reaching the thumbsticks stretches your opposable digits to their limits making small movements an unreasonably tricky thing. The tiny, slippy nubbins on the end of the sticks do nothing to help in the heat of the game either.

Switching to the D-pad isn't going to help, as that feels about as responsive as using your mouse on a baking tray full of custard. Lazy analogy I know, but hardly as lazy as the design attempts that went into making the Grandias.

For the same amount of money you can pick up one of the ofﬁcial Xbox 360 controllers, a far superior pad in so many ways. For another tenner you can buy one of the excellent, fully wireless Xbox 360 controllers, complete with wilreless receiver.

About the only positive thing I can say about the Grandias is that the buttons aren't hideously unresponsive and the wireless connection works.

I pity the poor folk whose loved ones, tasked with buying them a wireless pad for a birthday, get lumbered with one of these. That's the only way these will get sold: by mistake.

With 2.4GHz wireless technology, the Genius Wireless Grandias 12V is the best of the Grandias family for playing PC games with the freedom of movement. Just like the Grandias Commander, Wireless Grandias12V has an 8-way D-pad and 12 action buttons including four side buttons and analog stick button. It also provides three levels of Turbo and Macro functions and is great for gamers who like to play action, fighting, or FPS games.